The SU Awards | The Winners!

The SU Awards | The Winners!

Last week saw the final of our three annual awards dinners, the SU Awards! After highly successful Sports & Society dinners, it was time to honour all those who make the teaching, learning & representation at York St John as incredible as it is!

Below is full list of the awards, the winners & all the reasons why!

Employability Development

This award is designed to celebrate those members of staff who work hard to ensure that their students leave university with key transferable skills and confidence in their future careers prospects. The winner of this award looks after the Work Related Learning module within their subject area. By collaborating with staff in the Careers team they managed to make the module engaging, useful and successful. They are a huge advocate for the Careers, Placements & Student Opportunities team, and have used some of the core career learning theories used in our practice to inform the module development. On top of this, they have worked this year on developing their knowledge of labour markets and models of career development learning. She has been a much-valued ally for ‘careers’ across the university.

Winner: Ann Christie

Project of the Year

It has been hard to miss this project around campus. Over the course of this year this project has engaged and encouraged difficult conversations about sexual violence, harassment and abuse. It’s been amazing to see the positive student reaction and engagement with all the events held throughout this year and the impact is clear to see and we hope that it will remain a key presence around YSJ.

Winner: All About Respect

Feedback

This award is designed to celebrate staff that react and respect student feedback about their time at university. The winner of this award has actively sought out and listened to feedback given through the academic rep system and has acted in the interests of students on their course. It is clear through reading the nomination that this lecturer has made a huge difference to the experience of students that study Children, Young People, and Families.

Winner: Graham Bright

Inclusive Learning & Teaching

One key aspect of learning and teaching at York St John is that all students have access to education, regardless of any barriers they may have to overcome. This award is given to a staff member who embodies inclusive learning and teaching. This year’s winner readily helps and supports students with dyslexia. Maintaining a friendly and open teaching environment, it is clear that the wellbeing of their student’s is put first.

Winner: Margaret Wood

Support Staff Member of the Year

This award is being given to a Support Staff Member who goes above and beyond to ensure that their students are supported throughout the academic year. The winner has dedicated so many hours to the students she mentors, helping them navigate university life, making sure that there are no barriers stopping them from accessing education. To summarise, her nomination stated that ‘she is a role model for all support staff out there as well as being a role model for her students’.

Winner: Laura Southward

Service Team of the Year

The service teams at YSJ are an important part of the university experience. Across campus there are some hidden heroes who work to make sure that everything runs smoothly. The winners of this award are always there to help rearrange rooms, move things around campus and clean up after our messy students. They are the backbone of all other services and are unsung heroes of Pound a Pint and Archie’s Day!

Winner: Porters & Domestic Services

Students’ Union Recognition Award

This award was created to celebrate a member of staff at university who was nominated for multiple awards. He has been a great help to all staff at the SU, by working with our Student Opportunities team to support Sports & Societies, working with the Student Voice team to act upon student feedback and supporting the Operations & Events team by keeping a healthy bar tab behind the SU bar!

Winner: Rich Lawrence

Course of the Year

The nominations for this award this year have been spectacular and inspiring to read – it was tough to pick a winner. The amount of love students have for the courses they study is brilliant to see. The winning nomination states that ‘this course is thoroughly and consistently organised to the best standard. Students are always very well informed about deadlines, what is expected for the assignments, receive invitations to lectures by guest speakers or other research evenings and all tutors offer a huge amount of time in making sure all students are happy and supported. This course has an enormous variety of modules students can choose from; we learn so much, and will be leaving university with so many transferable skills. Lastly, every single lecturer and staff member on this course are inspiring and motivational.’

Winner: English Literature

Inspirational Teaching

Like the previous award, we have been inundated with nominations for this award and it has been a difficult task to decide the winner. As it is so hard to define and explain what ‘inspirational’ means, we thought that reading the winning nomination was best: ‘From the beginning of my degree in first year I was instantly inspired by Dr. Fraser Mann’s lectures - he is incredibly passionate, engaging and I leave these lectures with a feeling of clarity and the need to explore these ideas further. His seminars are just as inspiring; he organises these classes in ways that challenge his students to push their ideas to the limits, and to get involved. He has the perfect balance between being approachable and motivational as well as professional - I always want to work hard in his seminars.’

Winner: Fraser Mann

Postgraduate Community Award

This award is designed to celebrate the postgraduate students on campus. The winner of this award has been an Academic Rep for all 3 taught masters courses within their school and has worked with members of staff to ensure that PG students are not neglected or forgotten. They have also worked with the PG research students to make sure that they are being supported throughout their projects and have worked to create links with the UG students who are interested in PG study by running sessions that give more info to those students.

Winner: Gabrielle Flockton

Student Engagement Award

This award is for students who have engaged outside of being a Liberation Officer or an Academic Rep. This year’s winner has provided amazing feedback on the experience of transgender students at YSJ. They show intense dedication to York St. John and during their election campaign showed real love for the campus and it’s students. They have worked with societies around the university to get their ideas about improving equality and diversity and to talk to them about trans-awareness. Their advice on trans issues have been invaluable to YSJ.

Winner: Ashton Pearson-Child

Liberation Officer of the Year

This academic year has been the first ever time we’ve elected Liberation Officers at York St John Students Union, which we think is a huge achievement in itself! After holding elections in October 2017, we elected five fantastic Liberation Officers, who have all contributed to a very successful year. From leading focus groups, to having meetings with University Staff and sitting on our student council; Senate. However, there was one person who I feel went above and beyond in their role as a Liberation Officer. This award goes to someone who I feel has dedicated a lot of time to their role. This person has helped university staff and myself implement positive change, putting motions forward in Senate regarding free contraception for all and gender neutral toilets. They worked collaboratively with me for the Trans Awareness campaign and YSJ’s first ever pronoun badges.

Winner: Shannon Clay (LGBTQ+ Officer)

Rep of the Year (per School)

This year, it is safe to say that our Chairs of Schools have been incredible. I wouldn’t have been able to do my job without their support and dedication. Please can we have a massive round of applause for all Chairs of Schools! Now, behind every leader there is a team of people who work with them and give them information to carry out their job effectively. The Chairs of Schools wouldn’t have achieved half of their goals if it weren’t for the commitment of their Academic Reps.

ADC - Liam Speck

YBS - Emma Johnston

Edu - Hannah Scott

HSC - Theo Farman

HRP - Adam Cummins

L&L - Laura Grove

PMP - Tom Knevitt

PSS - Raphie Piquiot

Sport - Erin Sorton

Chair of School of the Year

As we have seen from all these awards, the reps and Chairs of Schools have done an amazing job at representing their cohorts and have made a real, positive impact on campus. However there is one Chair of School who has been motivated, organised and hard-working throughout the year and that is why they have been chosen as the Chair of School of the Year.

Winner: Ebony Collier

Outstanding Contribution to Academic Representation

Each year we have a handful of reps that go above and beyond in the name of representation and it is safe to say that it is an outstanding contribution to the work we do here at YSJSU. Now, while we don’t base winners on the quantity of their nominations, it was hard to miss that the winner of this award was nominated a lot! The nomination that stood out the most was ‘throughout the year they have been an excellent rep, passively and actively. They were a very approachable figure if there were any concerns and they would go out of their way in order to help their fellow students out, always voicing any concerns that students have - a key skill of a Rep. I believe they deserve the relevant recognition for the amount of extra work they have put in order to help others.’

Winner: Evie Clowes

Outstanding Achievement Award

The Outstanding Achievement Award goes to a student who we at the Student’s Union believe has contributed immensely to the success of this academic year. This student has dedicated their time and effort to ensure the student experience is improved for multiple groups of students. This student has been a Liberation Officer, working alongside University staff as well as Students’ Union.

They have recently facilitated a focus group for BAME students which gathered extremely useful and valuable feedback, which I would personally like to thank them for. This student also presented at the Equality Elephant in the Room Session, whereby over 25 Academics attended, to listen to student views regarding disability support at the University. Not only has this student been a credit to the Students’ Union, she is also a mature student who is a full time parent too, which makes her dedication even more commendable.

The confidence and determination this student has shown is admirable, and we are lucky enough to have her around for her third year of University from September onwards.

Winner: Tene Dowling

Supporting York St John students to grow, succeed, and have a great time whilst at University